Ben-Gurion and the Military Justice Law

An article by Nir Kedar of Bar-Ilan University is available as a PDF download from the Social Science Research Network website. The article is entitled “A Civilian Commander in Chief: David Ben-Gurion, the Israeli Army and the Law.” Here is the abstract:

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime-minister, is regarded more of a `security-minded leader’ than a `civilian leader’. Nevertheless, as premier of a fledgling state, he played a major role in shaping Israel’s civil institutions and establishing democracy and the rule of law. Even his attitude toward the army and security matters derived from a solidly-constructed civil-legal weltanschauung. This paper demonstrates the civil roots of his concept of army by analyzing his insistent demand for the enactment of a comprehensive and efficient military criminal code (known in Israel as the Military Justice Law).